Greens Urge Debate On Animal-Human Transplants

Green Party Health Spokesperson Sue Kedgley is calling for urgent debate over Xenotransplantation - the process of
transferring animal cells into humans.

Ms Kedgley said the approval for an Auckland based company to transplant pig cells into people with insulin-dependent
diabetes could be imminent, and urgent public debate was required on the ethics and safety of xenotransplantation.

While welcoming the Ministry of Health's decision not to grant permission to the South Auckland company Diatranz to
start clinical trials on insulin dependent diabetics immediately, Ms Kedgley said the Ministry's reported comments that
this was only a 'temporary setback' suggested there was an urgent need to begin a public debate on the ethical and other
health and safety considerations before any formal approval was given.

"Xenotransplantation is an issue with profound ethical and safety considerations," she said. "It involves crossing the
species barrier between humans and animals which has existed for millenia, and tampering with the very basis of life.

"It raises the possibility of disease transfer between species, cross-over diseases from pigs to humans and of new
infectious and, possibly, deadly, viruses," Ms Kedgley said. "It also raises questions as to whether sacrificing animals
for xenotransplants is ethically and scientifically acceptable."

"There are so many unknowns in the field of xenotransplantation that nobody really knows what the implications are," she
pointed out. "This is why it is essential that all of these issues are thoroughly investigated in a wide-ranging debate
before any approvals are given for clinical trials," she said.

To date there has been no public consultation or debate about these issues.

"Let's not repeat the mistakes of genetic engineering, and try to introduce a new, highly risky and controversial
technology before there has been a proper public debate or even a proper regulatory regime in place."

Ms Kedgley said she has the utmost sympathy for the plight of diabetics, and supports research to improve their health,
but says that while it was perhaps possible that xenotransplantation could benefit individual patients it could also
pose grave risks to the wider community.

ends

Contact Sue Kedgley: 4706728, 025 2709088

Next in New Zealand politics

At the invitation of the Right Honourable Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand,
His Excellency the President of the Republic of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, undertook
a State Visit to New Zealand on 19 November 2018.

One hundred and fifty academics and researchers from around Aotearoa, including
Dame Anne Salmond, Emeriti Professors and several Fellows of the Royal Society, have
signed a strongly-worded open letter to the Government demanding bold and urgent ...

• Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker says New Zealand is trying to position
itself as the bridge between the United States and China. “We have a bit of a reputation
for the honest broker, and it’s times like this that we should draw upon that reputation”.

In helping to roll electricity out in a country that is overwhelmingly reliant on
fossil fuels, the Prime Minister has conveniently ignored her commitment to fighting
climate change, according to ACT Leader David Seymour.

Despite attempts for months by experts in waste-to-energy technology to get an appointment
to see her, Green’s Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage has refused all
approaches, claiming WtE plants “don’t fit with the government’s waste reduction ...

The combined National Executives of NZEI Te Riu Roa and the PPTA Te Wehengarua are
meeting today (Friday, 16 November) at 4pm to discuss possible joint campaigning
next year, should members reject the offers from the Ministry of Education.